Knitting and Crocheting and sometimes Spinning Blog

Month: March 2016

It’s been crazy busy here! Between going to class, taking exams and quizzes, doing homework, tutoring, attending meetings, etc. I barely have time to knit or crochet! Ugh it makes me sad but have no fear! My blanket is still a work in progress.

WIP Single Crochet Blanket

As you can see, I have added some more colors and stripes so whoo for progress! Hopefully this weekend I will have more time to work on this blanket as well as get back to some knitting.

Grandma is currently working on a hat, which seems a little small. I would put a picture of it here but Grandma would need to send me a picture and since her phone is broken right now… looks like we’re out of luck.

On that note though, we have learned how to spin thanks to The Centre Knitters Guild for teaching us at their For the Love of Fiber festival this past month. It was a wonderful time and we really enjoyed it. Also thank you to our friend Gabbi’s dad for making me a drop spindle! I really appreciate it and a thank you card will be coming shortly. =)

At the festival, I bought some beautiful merino fiber from the vendor Shirsty Cat Designs and am now spinning it! Below is a picture of Grandma spinning some of the fiber last night

Grandma spinning fiber into yarn

Yeah we don’t really know what we’re doing but we’re trying and I’m sure YouTube will help. Here are some more pictures of what I have done so far…

Apologize for slacking on the blog posts but that is up what we are up to lately! (besides living the college life)
– Kitty

Finger knit a chain measuring approximately 38 inches in length (or longer if desired length is longer than the necklace shown at the top of this pattern).
Cast off fingers and take the chain and fold in half
Next, twist the chain like shown below and sew together to hold twisted shape, leaving a small opening on the side that has the loop.
Knot the opposite end that doesn’t have the opening and voilà! The necklace is finished!

You may have seen that one of the offerings at the For the LOVE of Fiber festival is free knitting mini-classes. These classes are approximately 1 hour long, and no registration is required! Here are some details:

Advanced Grafting with Cathy Riemer: This mini-class beginning at 11AM will take you beyond Kitchener Stitch (a method used to graft live stitches together). If you’ve got something more complex than two pieces of stockinette, it can be confusing to graft them invisibly. Let Cathy help you! Prerequisite skills should include kitchener stitch and working from charts. To participate in the Advanced Grafting class, you should bring:

Two identical swatches, still on the needles, about 15-20 stitches wide. Make them in the Ribbed Eyelet stitch pattern from this article or another stitch pattern of your choice such as garter or ribbing. Use yarn that is easy to see.

As promised, I have finished my hat pattern! I knitted this hat on straight needles so for those of you who have not yet mastered those circular needles quite yet, or just want a simple straight needle hat pattern that still looks nice, here you go! Completely free of charge and Grandma will be posting it on Ravelry soon with a full picture tutorial.

CO 43
Row 1 (RS): knit
Row 2 (WS): knit
Row 3 (RS): purl
Row 4 (WS): purl
Continue this pattern of knit two rows, purl two rows until the length measures about 18 inches.
BO
Sew the two shorter ends of the rectangle together (the side where you casted on and casted off) and then cinch the top to create the top of the hat

Spring break has finally come to a conclusion =( I’m back on campus now about ready to take a cat nap after a 4 hour drive and before a delicious dinner our friend Murray is cooking tonight, but I wanted to post this first.

For all of my friends, I bake them birthday cupcakes. It’s easy and they get to choose which cupcake flavor they would like. So for Grandma’s birthday last week, I baked her those yummy chocolate raspberry cupcakes I told you about in Spring Breaking It. And I happen to know quite a few Pieces so the baking continues! My friend Casper’s birthday was on the 10th and my other friend Mariah’s birthday is coming up on St. Patrick’s Day.

For Casper’s birthday I baked these delicious choclate covered pretzel cupcakes. This cupcake includes a pretzel crust (which is to die for – seriously, as I was scooping it into the cupcake pan, I was eating the pre-baked crust) a chocolate cupcake (of course) and a chocolate ganache. Surprisingly, not overdone with chocolate which makes this cupcake recipe fabulous! I didn’t have enough melting chocolate to dip the pretzels in with afterwards to top, but I still put a pretzel twist on top.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cupcake

For Mariah’s birthday, I baked a dozen of chocolate whiskey cupcakes. I neglected the caramel drizzle and the Guinness beer part of this recipe, on a count of I didn’t have either. But I did make sure I added an extra tablespoon of Jameson Irish Whiskey to the whiskey frosting (which came out amazing!). I am a little sorry that I jipped the chocolate cake on the Guiness beer – it didn’t taste right without it. I shouldn’t have been so lazy and just ran to the liquor store. But I think I made up for it by putting a surprise in one of the cupcakes for her 21st. Can you tell which one?

Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes

I promise, when Grandma and I open up our store, we’ll make cupcakes for our customers as well. I hope I’m not making you too hungry!

Back to knitting: I finished knitting the hat at my brother’s high school lacrosse game. (I know, I’m a dork – but hey, lacrosse just isn’t my favorite sport to watch) I will have the pattern typed up and put up here in no time! (And by that, I really do hopefully mean tonight) But just for a preview of how the hat came out if you are interested in this very easy hat pattern (it’s just knit two, perl two)…